Time and Space 08
This is Chapter 8: The Angels of Thoth in Miramc22's fan fiction, Time and Space. ---- "Okay, what do I do?" I ask reluctantly. Obviously, I'' was going to have to get out of this, with the guidance of the Doctor. I was going to have to lead Nafrini, Remmao, and Shenti out of the cave alive, with all of the Weeping Angels destroyed. "You're going to have to take care of the Weeping Angels as well. Do you understand how they work?" The Doctor asked. "Yeah, I think. Not blinking to prevent dying. If I do die, I understand that I'm killed nicely," I said sarcastically. "This is extremely important that you know this. I'm serious, Lizzie. You need to know exactly what to do if you want to live," the Doctor said, his voice stern. I decided to shut up, because I was hoping that he wouldn't flip out on me, like his freak-out at the palace. "How are we going to do this?" I asked, shining my flashlight around the cave. It was huge, with long passageways, caverns, and multiple dangerous-looking stalactites and stalagmites. "I explained to you that the Weeping Angels are quantum-locked life-forms, and that's how they catch their food. They can only move when they're not being observed, so you have to keep an eye on them at all times, and I mean it. If you even blink, they'll catch you, and when they catch you, and touch you, you're displaced back in time, and you die. Sending someone back in time creates time energy, and the time energy is what the Angels feed on. Do you know why they're called the Weeping Angels, Lizzie?" The Doctor asked. "No," I said. "What happens when you're staring at an Angel?" "Uh, it can't move?" I said, though it was more of a question. "Correctamundo! A word which I have been saying more frequently recently. Can you tell me what happens when two Angels are looking at each other?" He asked. "Well, if they're being observed by each other, neither of them can move," I said, hopefully catching on. The Doctor seemed like a person to explain something simple, tear that explanation down, and make it more complicated. "Correctamundo! Again. They're locked in a staring contest for eternity. And to avoid looking at each other, they cover their eyes with their hands. They're not really weeping; they're avoiding eye contact with each other," the Doctor said eerily. "That's'' why they're called the Weeping Angels." "Because if they're both looking at each other, they can't move," I concluded. "Ever. They don't exist anymore. They're only statues when you see them. So do you understand what you have to do?" The Doctor quizzed me. "I have to get them to look at each other," I finished. "You have to get them to look at each other," the Doctor confirmed. "How am I going to do that?" I asked. "There's more than one person with you. You need to get their attention, all four of you. Once you have their attention, you're going to let it come to you." "I'm going to what?" I asked. "Now, assuming that there's more than one Weeping Angel. There's only four of you. They travel in groups, but they're going to want the food to themselves. Only four of them are going to be fed, so it's going to be like a feeding frenzy. They're all in a race to catch their food," the Doctor explained. "Great," I said sarcastically. The Doctor ignored me. "More than one Weeping Angel is going to come after you. And to do that, all of you need to stick together. When you come across an angel, stand back to back. Let it come to you. Their groups are usually of four, and they'll attack in their groups. You all need to keep one or more Angel in your line of vision. When they're close enough, duck from under their arms. They'll be close enough to the point that they're looking at each other," the Doctor said. "That's going to work?" I asked. "Well," the Doctor said, elongating the word again. "It should. Artoo says that chances of survival are 725 to 1. Actually, Artoo has been known to make mistakes... from time to time. Oh dear." "Are you quoting Star Wars?!" I exclaimed. Was he serious? I mean, it was a quote from Star Wars, but was the Doctor actually serious that this may not work? The Doctor cleared his throat. "You're going to be fine, Lizzie. You trust me, don't you?" "I don't know," I said. Honestly. The Doctor told me that I could trust him. I should trust him. But do I really? "Lizzie Carter, you have to trust me on this. Everything is going to be fine. All four of you are going to get out of there alive." "The Weeping Angels. Once they're taken care of, how are we going to get out of the cave?" "I'll go to the TARDIS right now. I'll bring up the map of the cave, and I'll instruct you to the nearest exit that you can get to, after the Weeping Angels are taken care of," the Doctor said. "I'll be at the TARDIS in about ten minutes. Stay alive, all right?" "Got it," I said, and I smiled to myself thinly. I knew that the Doctor couldn't see me, but I smiled to myself. It was to reassure myself. "The plan is that we have to let the Weeping Angels come to us," I explained to the three other teenagers around me. "When you see an Angel, you have to stare at it. You can't even blink. Because if you look away, turn your back, or if your vision is obscured from the Angel, it'll get you. And once it gets you, you die," I explained. "Stay in the light. They can get you in the dark." "So what do we have to do?" Shenti asked. "We have to stay together. The Angels hunt in groups of four, which means that only one group is going to get the meal. They'll all come after us. So, what we have to do is get them close enough to each other so that they'll look at each other. Once they look at each other, they can't move for all eternity. And then, once they're looking at each other, we're done," I finish. "There's probably going to be twelve or eight Angels tops," I explained. "Just keep one or more Angel in your line of vision. Once you're sure that they're all looking at each other, you can get away. Duck under their arms or something. Just keep repeating that procedure. And just make sure that you're looking at them at all times," I explained. "Understand?" I asked. They all nodded in unison. And with that, we continued to venture into the cave. ---- The deeper that we ventured into the cave, it began to get lighter. It was lighter, I noticed, because there were holes in the ceiling. Daylight was streaming through the holes in the ceiling, allowing us to see more clearly in the dark cave. I could have switched my flashlight off, but I was too scared to do that. I was leading our group of four, being the "line leader" like in Kindergarten. I guess, I felt like I was in charge, even though we were all going to have to work together. "So," I said aloud. I hadn't really gotten to know my companions with weird names, and because we'd be working together to save Ancient Egypt, and possibly the planet, I decided to bring up conversation. Remmao and Shenti seemed to be talking to each other, so I smiled at the girl, Nafrini. "Hi." "Hello," Nafrini said, smiling shortly back. We talked as we walked. "Sorry about the weird introduction earlier. I'm Elizabeth," I introduced, smiling. "I'm Nafrini," she smiled back. I remembered what she had said earlier about being randomly taken from the street: I wanted to ask her about that, but I wasn't sure if I should. "Yeah," I nodded. "Are you okay?" I ask. It occured to me that we were speaking two different languages, but having a conversation fluently. "I suppose I'm all right. Are you okay?" She asked. "Not really," I admitted. "Where are you from?" She asked. "I'm from really far away." "You're not from Alexandria, are you?" "No, I'm afraid not." "Your hair. It's golden. And your eyes. They're cloudy blue, like the sky before it rains. Do all people look like that where you're from?" She asked. "People look different," I shrug. "All kinds of different." I guess that in Ancient Egypt, most people looked similar: brown eyes, black hair, tanned skin. And, they liked to wear wigs. Nafrini, Shenti, and Remmao all looked similar. "It's a good kind of different," she smiled. "Thank you," I smiled back. "You're not going to tell me where you're from?" She asked. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you," I smiled. "You seem to have composed yourself from earlier," she said, laughing a little. "Yeah, I guess so. It's just that where I'm from, this doesn't really happen to people every day," I blurted out. Great job, Elizabeth. Way to blend into the scene. But what was I even talking about? Human sacrifice, being kidnapped by a total space-alien, or time traveling? Possibly, all of them? "What doesn't happen to people every day?" Nafrini asked. "I don't know. I've just had a really big day," I shrugged, still walking, looking ahead of me. "Does your family know?" Nafrini asked suddenly. My head snapped up to look at her, and she was looking at me sadly. "What do you mean?" I asked, thoughts suddenly swarming through my head. Thousands of years into the future. Dad, Sarah, Madison, and James. Where were they now? They were thousands of years ahead of me, and I wasn't sure what they were doing. Was I even there to them? If I died here, what would happen to me? Would they ever know what happened? They'd be wondering, forever, where I went, why I went, and what happened. But the real question was, would they even care? "Your family. Do they know that you're being sacrificed?" She clarified. "I..." I began, my head spiraling with thoughts. "No. They don't." "Oh," Nafrini said. "Mine don't, either." "They don't?" I asked. Was that what she meant when she said that she was literally taken from the street? "They don't know. We all know about the sacrifice, but none of us actually expect to be sacrificed. It's rather out-of-the blue, and you don't know when it's going to happen. My parents, I don't even know if they'll be informed," she said sadly. "Really?" I asked. Nafrini nodded, and continued. I thought that she was going to cry, which was fine with me. I kind of wanted to cry, too, but I felt like I couldn't cry. I was being the leader, and the leader couldn't cry. "But, they'll be all right, I guess. It's considered a huge honor to be sacrificed. I mean, they'll never know until don't come home," she said, and I noticed that she had some tears slowly forming in her eyes. "They'll never know what happened to me. And, they still have my little brother to raise, so it's not like they won't be parents anymore," she said. "You have a little brother?" I asked. I was feeling sympathy for her. I've never had a little brother, but I could sort of imagine how she felt. I'd lost Mom. She'd be losing everyone. Or, rather, everyone would be losing her. "I do. His name is Ramses. He's only five," Nafrini smiled sadly. "Now, thinking about it, I guess I won't get to see him grow up," she said, still smiling, though she was really stuggling to keep the tears away. Her, talking about her life like this, was making me realize how real this all was. I'm not dreaming. I may have time traveled thousands of years into the past, but this was all very real to me. I was fighting for my life. If I couldn't stop these Weeping Angels, who knows what would happen to the present day? Would the Weeping Angels destory all of Ancient Egypt, even though the history there is to come? Not to mention Nafrini, Remmao, and Shenti, who all had families of their own that they have to go home to? I glanced down at my neck, and noticed the necklace that was hanging on it. The necklace that the Doctor gave me. I took it off, and put it around Nafrini's neck. "What's this?" She asked, glancing at the necklace. "It's a promise. It's the promise that I'm going to get you out of here. You're going to see your family again. I want you to have it," I smiled. Nafrini gasped. "Where did you get this? Elizabeth, this is expensive! I can't accept this!" She exclaimed. I raised my eyebrows. Expensive? If I had known that it was expensive, I wouldn't have accepted it from the Doctor. "It's fine. My friend, the Doctor, gave it to me, and I want you to have it." Then, Nafrini crushed me in a hug. I hugged her back, and that's when I turned and directly looked Nafrini in the eyes. I made another promise that I'm not sure if I can keep. "Don't worry. I promise, I'll get you out of here alive. All of you," I said, loudly enough for Shenti and Remmao to hear. "My friend, the Doctor, is going to help us. He's dealt with all of this stuff before," I said, even though I wasn't sure where that came from. Had he? Of course he had. "He's dealt with all of the bad things in the universe, and he saves us all from them. We wouldn't be here if it weren't for him," I continue. "And it's because, I think, he's the last. He comes from a different kind of people, and he's the only one left. And not just anyone can save the day. It's the Doctor that can," I say confidently. Hopefully, I was right. ---- We ventured deeper into the cave, and the deeper we got, the creepier everything was. There were still no signs of the Weeping Angels, which I guess was good, but then, I saw the creepiest thing ever. Statues. Just weathered, old, creepy statues. I shed some light from my flashlight onto the statues, and noticed their demented faces. "What are these?" I asked. "People call them the Lost Souls of the Sacrificed," Shenti explained. "They say that these are the lost souls that belonged to the ones sacrificed to the Angels of Thoth. Each statue represents them, and their soul is trapped within, frozen in a moment of time for forever." "We'll be like them, not too soon from now," Remmao said. "Your plan from your Doctor isn't going to work. Nobody can defeat the gods. Nobody can even try and defy their power." I wanted to snort, because their gods are just an explanation as to how the universe works. I know that I can't say that their gods never existed, because who knows which gods are real and which gods are false, but their gods have only ever been a way to explain natural occurances like weather, seasons, suns, moons, knowledge, life, death, and so on. "I don't want to turn into a statue," Nafrini said. She sounded scared, and I honestly couldn't blame her. The statues creeped me out. I felt like they were all watching me. "And you won't," I said. Obviously, these statues weren't lost souls, but they weren't Weeping Angels. They didn't look like Angels at all, more like demented humans. "We should be seeing some Weeping Angels soon," I explained. "Do you guys understand the plan?" They nodded in unison again, and hopefully, they honestly understand the plan. "We all need to work together." Suddenly, the Doctor's voice came blaring into my ears. "Earth to Lizzie," the Doctor's voice said in my brain. "Roger that," I said, thankful to hear the Doctor again. "Okay, where's the nearest exit?" "All right, we've got to take care of the Weeping Angels first," the Doctor said. "Have you seen any of them yet?" "No, we haven't," I said, glacing at the statues. I decided that they weren't Weeping Angels. If they were Weeping Angels, they would have attacked by now, wouldn't they? "Okay. Stay safe. I'm pulling up a map now of the cave," the Doctor said. "Okay," I said, and nodded to myself. I noticed that Nafrini, Remmao, and Shenti were all staring at me, and I managed a nervous smile at them. "So you're in the TARDIS right now?" I asked. "Yeah," the Doctor said. "But if you're in the TARDIS, why can't you just fly it in here, pick us up, and then take care of the Angels later?" I asked. "Because," the Doctor said nonchalantly. "Too tight of a space to fly her into. Maybe, if I found a nice clearing in the cave..." his voice trailed off. My heart fluttered. The Doctor was coming! He was coming, and he was going to save us all. "Can you?" I asked expectantly. "No," the Doctor said, and at that second, my heart dropped into my stomach. "Why not?" I asked, crushed. "There's an unusual amount of time energy in that cave," the Doctor said, his words leaving a huge impact on me. "Very unusual. And it's fresh, new, recent..." the Doctor's voice trailed off again. "132 nonhuman life forms detected," he read. A chill went throughout my entire body. Recent. "Elizabeth," he said, talking to me in a slow voice, like I'm a child. Well, I must be a child to him, because he's 907. "What do you see around you?" He asked. I went deathly pale. "What do you see?" He said, his voice rising. "It's nothing! I mean, the Lost Souls. Just statues. They're just statues," I stuttered. "Ohhhh," the Doctor said. "I'm thick. I'm really thick. Really, very, very, stupid, old, thick, silly Doctor!" He exclaimed. "What is it?" I asked, beginning to panic. I looked around the cave. The statues weren't moving. What was he talking about? They're just statues. They weren't moving. They're just statues. "Don't. Even. Blink," the Doctor said, his words crushing my soul with each syllable. "They're just statues. I mean, they don't look like Angels. They're statues of humans," I explained. But what did I know? "It's a low level perception filter. Elizabeth, look at the statues," the Doctor said, and I glanced at a statue about twenty feet away from me. "I am," I said, and I was starting to panic. "Don't blink," the Doctor repeated. I didn't know where it came from, but I protested. "I don't believe you," I said. "They're just statues. They're not aliens from another world, they're just statues!" I said. And staring right at an Angel, I blinked. I opened my eyes immediatley after. It was in my face. A deformed statue. A Lost Soul. I shed light onto the stone person, without blinking, my eyes already beginning to burn. Tears were slowly forming in my eyes. I hadn't moved at all. The statue did. I let out a scream, which sent the Doctor into a panic. "ELIZABETH!" He exclaimed, sounding worried. "ELIZABETH! You blinked, didn't you?" He asked. I nodded, even though I knew that he couldn't see me. "Yeah," I said, still, miraculously, not blinking. I didn't dare to, because I knew that if I blinked again, it would get me. It would kill me. "Don't blink!" The Doctor said, and I could hear his temper rising. "Do. Not. Blink. Because, you see, this is why I travel alone now. Rose left. Martha left. Donna left. I don't travel with anyone anymore, because this is what happens. This is always what happens!" The Doctor exclaimed. "What always happens?" I asked tearfully. I knew what he meant, though. "They always have to leave," the Doctor said. "They always have to leave because bad things happen. When you're around me, bad things happen," he said. "But not you, Lizzie Carter. You are going to live. You, the complicated, difficult, stubborn Lizzie Carter, you are going to live," he said. "I can't," I shook my head. I knew it. I was going to die right here. "Oh, yes. Yes you can," the Doctor said. "You are going to come out of this cave alive. You, Lizzie, are going to live," the Doctor said. I still hadn't blinked throughout the time that the Doctor had lectured me. The Angel was still in my face. "What do I do?" I asked. "Look at the Angel," the Doctor said. "I am," I said. "And don't blink. Look closely," the Doctor said. "I am," I insisted. "You're not looking closely enough. Look at it. Really, look at it," the Doctor said, and so I did. I looked at the Angel. And suddenly, it wasn't a deformed statue anymore. It wasn't a lost soul. It was a Weeping Angel. The Weeping Angel was hideous. It was a stone statue, and I felt like Medusa, staring at a petrified, screaming face. It would have been beautiful, except for its blank eyes, malicious fangs, snarling face, and terrible claws. I gasped, and backed away from the Weeping Angel. "There it is!" The Doctor exclaimed. "Run!" He shouted. "Run!" I repeated to my companions, who had been silent the entire time. And so, we ran. It was amazing. It was thrilling. Still keeping my eyes on the statue, I ran, though I wasn't sure where I was going. Adrenaline kicked through me, and I ran. It was the best feeling ever. "DON'T LOOK AWAY FROM THE STATUES! KEEP LOOKING AT THEM!" I exclaimed. That's when I tripped on something. I looked down, and I shouldn't have. It was a hat. And it wasn't just any old hat. It was Remmao's jackal hat. I gasped, and my eyes trailed down to a human skeleton. Who knows how long it had been lying there. He wouldn't have died of old age, he would have died of starvation and dehydration, like I would, if I was caught. It was covered in dust, and I immediatley felt sick to my stomach. It was Remmao. I heard Nafrini choke back a sob and Shenti gasp aloud. The hat was old, weathered, and deteriorating, like the skeleton. The skeleton of Remmao, who had been alive just four or five minutes ago. Remmao was the "recent" time energy. My promise to the three of them had been broken. "Oh my gods," Nafrini said, and Shenti put his hand over her shoulder to comfort her. "I'm sorry, guys," I said urgently, "but we have to go." I looked up, and almost screamed again. It was two Weeping Angels, coming toward me. I snapped my head around quickly, and I saw that two Weeping Angels were coming after Shenti and Nafrini. They were cornering us. I returned my direction back to the two Weeping Angels in front of me. I backed up to find Shenti and Nafrini, who were both behind me. I was standing back to back with both of them, and every time I blinked, a Weeping Angel came closer. I couldn't see them move: they just advanced further every time I blinked. They had to get closer. "Don't let them get too close," I instructed. I wasn't sure if the Weeping Angels could hear, so I wasn't sure if I should talk about the plan. They had ears, so I figured that I shouldn't explain the plan. The four angels were gaining on us. However, the closer they got, the less confident I felt. It had to be at the perfect moment. The Weeping Angels all had to be a good distance from each other, and the two that were chasing me were close. In another blink, they'd be close enough. Even though I realized that my calculation could be wrong, and that the Weeping Angels might be close enough to kill me, I sighed a shaky sigh, cleared my mind of all thoughts, preparing myself, thinking that if this didn't work, it would be okay to die, and then blinked. Category:Time and Space Category:Time and Space Chapter